Term of the Week: Intelligent Content

What is it?

Why is it important?

Enables organizations to rapidly adapt their content to the changing needs of their customers and the devices they use.

Why does a content strategist need to know this?

Too often, content is handcrafted to get the “message right” in a single output instead of getting the correct content to the right customer in the right context and on the device of their choosing. We have to move away from the artisanal creation of content to a manufacturing model in which consistently structured, reusable content components can be assembled into a variety of content deliverables. That requires intelligent content.

Intelligent content is supported by content models, a reuse strategy, and a taxonomy strategy.

Content models define the structure of content components and content assemblies. They are formalized in templates, forms, and markup languages like XML. Structured content is format-free, style-less content that can be automatically displayed, filtered, or layered to optimize display on a target device with little or no human intervention. It reduces costs and increases speed of delivery. Structured writing guidelines guide authors in writing consistently structured content.

A reuse strategy identifies what types of content will be reused, the level of granularity (component size), how the content will be reused, and how to automatically assemble reusable content. With modular, reusable content, you can change the order of components, include or exclude components, and reuse components to build entirely new types of content to meet new needs.

A taxonomy strategy defines how to store and retrieve your content based on a common vocabulary (metadata). Using metadata, you can retrieve the pieces of content you need to automatically build customized information sets.

Additional Resources:

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Each week, we feature a guest expert who will define and help you understand an important term every content strategist should know and understand. 52 weeks. 52 terms. 52 definitions. 52 essays from 52 experts. This is the beginning of a common language. The language of content strategy.

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